Afterlife
by Veinne
Summary: The Marauders reconcile once more at a miserable-looking little Muggle bus stop.


**A/N: This was created when I read too many Wormtail-bashing fics. I understand he made a colossal mistake, and he's ****_really_**** messed up inside out, but he's a ****_human_**** as well. All these 'Marauders reunite after life' fics just toss Wormtail aside like he was not part of the Marauders before.**

**I'm not saying they should like, forgive him or anything. I understand that he betrayed them, and they probably all detest him, but even the bad parts are parts of the past that you cannot deny happened. **

**And here's a 'state-the-obvious' disclaimer from me saying that I do not own any part of this fic except the concept & idea.**

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James Potter was sitting on a bench at a Muggle bus stop. It sounds like a funny joke removed of its punch line, but it really was just a simple statement. He remembered what had happened.

The three of them celebrating Halloween's, and Voldemort's arrival in their home. The frantic shouting, the cackling fire, the final blast of green light that would ultimately seal his fate.

He hoped Lily and Harry had survived the ordeal. It was all he could hope for, sitting there alone in that desolate, miserable little bus stop. Peter had betrayed them- it was the only logical explanation for the events that followed. He felt a burst of anger, but soon it diminished, and all James could feel was exhaustion.

"Where on earth is this place?" he asked himself, frowning.

"I was just going to ask you that question, mate," he heard someone say. _That voice... _His head whipped up expectantly, and there was his old mate, looking the same as ever, if not a little haggard.

"Padfoot!" he gasped in shock.

"No, really? I thought I was James Potter, arrogant git of the century," Sirius said sarcastically, but the growing grin on his face betrayed him. The two friends embraced, a feeling of old comradeship thrumming.

"What happened?" James asked softly, the light, joking mood passing.

"...You died," Sirius sighed, taking the seat next to him. "Lily too." James' heart sank. He had been desperately clinging to the hope that his family had survived, that he had bought them enough time to escape the clutches of Voldemort.

"Harry?" he inquired, the one-word question conveying both hope and grief.

"He's alive," Sirius said, his grim expression breaking to form a small smile. "And he's fifteen now. He owns the Marauder's Map and your old Invisibility Cloak, but he's all _responsible_ and never lets me visit him at Hogwarts," he added, pouting.

"That's Lily's genes, so don't blame me," James said, feeling glad for once, a rush of happiness both blissful and aching. "Why are you dead?" he asked as an afterthought. "Who'll take care of him now?" The familiar ache of worrying returned, like a wound you thought had healed that opened up again, mocking you with its searing pain.

"I'm going to pretend not to be hurt that _that_'s the first thing that comes to mind when you notice I'm dead," Sirius sniffed, turning his head away from James in mock-hurt. "Bellatrix happened. There was a fight in the Ministry of Magic, the Department of Mysteries, and there was a Veil, and-"

"It's okay," James said, putting an arm around his best friend. "The past should not be recalled if it only brings more misery to the people of the present." Sirius nodded.

"As for your other question, Remus and the rest of the Order will take care of him," Sirius smiled, not the mischievous grin he never outgrew, but a soft, gentle smile. "He's got great friends too, they'll take care of him." James nodded.

There were so many questions pounding in his mind. Who did Harry live with? Were their other friends still alive? What had happened to Dumbledore and Moony and the Weasleys and the Prewetts and the McKinnons and old Arabella Figg? He couldn't bring himself to ask, a sort of weariness thrumming in the back of his mind that said "Those questions are not for now."

"Why are we here?" he asked instead, turning his head to view the bus stop that had obviously endured years of vandalism.

"Who knows?" Sirius shrugged, a careless gesture dismissing the worries of the world that James missed so sorely. The two of them sat there like that for a long moment, before the silence was once again broken by the arrival of a bus. It looked sort of like the Knight Bus, but the two of them did not pay much attention to it, because just then, a pudgy worn-out man emerged from the bus.

"You!" they both exclaimed, their wands whipped out subconsciously so fast that the motion almost went past undetected. The pudgy man stared at the two of them for a long while, his weary eyes a stony picture without a trace of emotion. Then his entire posture sagged, like a sack of flour thrown to the floor.

"Yes, me," he answered, his wheezy voice laced with exhaustion. "What is this? Some sort of afterlife punishment in hell for all the horrible deeds I've committed?"

"My wife and I are _dead_ because of you!" James shouted, fury and anger evident in each syllable.

"Yes, you two are dead because of my betrayal," he agreed.

"How can you say that so calmly?!" Sirius demanded, shoving the man up against the wall of the bus stop. The man did not even flinch. "Harry doesn't have his _parents_ because of you, you utterly disgusting filth!"

"I'm saying that calmly because I'm tired of lying," the man said, his voice showing no emotion other that weariness. "Aren't you sick of hearing my lies, Padfoot?"

"Don't call me that," Sirius growled, his eyes narrowing. "Only my friends call me that."

"Fine, Sirius, then," the man sighed in exasperation. "Aren't you sick of it? I'm constantly spewing out lies- I didn't know this-and-that would happen, You-Know-Who threatened to kill me, Sirius was the Secret Keeper, not me!- aren't you sick of it all?"

"How can you say that?" Sirius asked, trying to stop himself from throttling the man. "When you were the one who always did it? How can you?"

"You know there's no answer to that question, Sirius," the man said sadly. "My apologies no longer hold any meaning, all of you think of me as the mud beneath your shoes anyway. Why should I bother to conceal the truth anymore? Yes, I've always liked to hide behind the biggest bully in the playground, YES, I betrayed James and Lily because Voldemort had became that, YES, I turned into a Death Eater, something we had all promised never, ever, to do. YES, I did _all_ of that. So why don't you just accept the truth and beat me up about it, instead of asking me 'why' and 'how'?"

"Because beating you up won't solve anything," James said from his corner, his cracked voice making Sirius look over in surprise. He had forgotten James was there in his fury and anger, and he wondered briefly why he didn't look angrier. After all, it was _him _who died.

"Listen, the three of us are dead," James said, his tired voice barely above a whisper. "I'm never forgiving you for what you did, Wormtail, but I'm tired of beating people up over the past. Besides, I admit I pretty much had a hand in constructing your need to stay behind the person in power. Sirius and I were bigoted idiots, really-" Sirius huffed and pouted at this matter-of-fact statement.

"-and we liked having someone like you around stuttering and nervous and constantly tipping things over, because it felt like it emphasized our non-existent godliness. We felt, and looked, more superior, and it made us feel good morally to, like the stronger taking pity on the weaker. But what we did wasn't helping you. It was corrupting you."

"You'd been bullied for years, and we befriended you and suddenly you were protected from the hissing insults and the badly-hidden disgust. You liked that, being free suddenly from all the shoving in the corridors and the name-calling, because suddenly, you felt important; significant."

"But we also made you feel inferior. You thought about the situation just like we had thought about it- the stronger taking pity on the weaker, and the firm belief was immediately set in your mind that you were always going to be inferior, that in order to have comfort and happiness, you always had to suck up the stronger ones. So we pretty much shaped your personality into the hideous one it is now."

The other two of them looked at him in surprise. "Who are you and what have you done to James Potter?" Sirius inquired jokingly. "He's speaking in full sentences!" James glared at him halfheartedly. "But I agree," Sirius added. "It's mostly your fault, but it's partially (small portion, mind) ours."

"We can't forgive you," James said seriously. "We can _never_ forgive you for the havoc you have wrought upon our lives. But I'm tired, Sirius is tired, and you're tired. I think we can all stop beating you up for this life."

"Doesn't mean we like you or anything," Sirius offered. "We detest you."

Peter nodded, and for once, a small genuine smile appeared on his pudgy, haggard face. "That's all I can ever ask for from you guys."

Their conversation was cut short when someone from the distance walked towards them, someone with brown, shaggy hair, holding a black umbrella above his head.

"Guys," he said, a look of pure relief on his face, and he embraced James and Sirius. There was a rush of feelings, of emotions and pure joy that could not be described, but his face slowly turned to face the man standing awkwardly in the corner. "You! You lying, thieving back-stabber-"

"Remus," James said gently, placing an arm on his shoulder. "There is no room for anger in this life."

"But-" James raised an eyebrow. "But-" James raised_both_ of his eyebrows. "Fine. But I'm not talking to him," Remus decided, sitting down on the bench.

"That's fair enough," James said, nodding as he took a seat as well. "Well, I think the Marauders are reunited, fair and square. I wonder what happens now."

"Well," Remus said softly, watching as a bus pulled up beside them. "We're at a bus stop. How about we take a bus?"

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**Just because I didn't make Wormtail completely evil and unrepentant doesn't mean I like him, kay. I still think my favourite Marauder's Remus. Anyway, that's it for this oneshot. Flames will be snorted at and extinguished. **

**Read & Review, please, and tell me if you find any mistakes or holes in the story~**


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